BY EFFIE DEANS Liz Truss is attempting to rescue both Britain and the Conservative Party by a supply side revolution involving massive tax cuts. Suddenly after years of Tory centrism and wet mush we have got Friedman and Hayek back as the philosophy behind Kwasi Kwarteng’s thinking. It is not so much quasi-Conservatism as the real thing. This ought to work. If you believe in … Continue reading At Last, Real Conservatism?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN According to the later versions of the Brothers Grimm tales, when Rumpelstiltskin – the imp who spun straw into gold in exchange for a girl’s firstborn – was rebuffed: “He in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands … Continue reading Social Currency – Fool’s Gold
BY DANIEL JUPP Are there any boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed in the name of a “progressive society”? The progressive offer is a seductive one in one sense: if you accept complete submission and subservience to the progressive ideology, if you accept that the State is all powerful and decides all things, if you normalise the idea that every human being is both flawed and … Continue reading Where does ‘Progress’ End?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN It is obvious that there are believers on both sides of the deficient Left-Right political spectrum who have substituted religion with other beliefs. People who have taken a leap of faith to believe all-out in an idea or theory. The primary aim of the conquistadores was Empire, sanctioned by concurrent conversions. In the case of the Left, the Wokerati engage in a … Continue reading Overplaying Postmodernism
BY SAM WHITE It’s time to be realistic. Liberalism will soon be dead. There has been a sustained attack on liberal values, from hijacked institutions that were former defenders of such liberal values (such as universities and the BBC), escalating for many years. For those who follow alternative media and the blogosphere, this is, of course, not news. No doubt, if you are reading this, … Continue reading Wheels Turn
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN “Where are there flying cars, Daddy?” “Flying cars are everywhere. We call them planes.” “Ha! Planes are not cars, Daddy. I’m not gullible!” People are so focused on form (in this instance a flying object that looks like a car) that they overlook the function (conveyance by flight). Original visions of inventions or ideas set boundaries because in part we can see … Continue reading First Principles
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Watching opportunists using the Coronavirus crisis as a lever with which to implement Communism is simultaneously entertaining and dispiriting: Someone sent me this photo of the @c2c_Rail this morning from Southend to London, who are running a reduced service so everyone’s crammed on the train. This situation is utter madness, the government has to announce a universal basic income and call a … Continue reading Universal Basic Logic
BY TARQUIN SUTHERLAND I like many have made the long and tortuous journey from the Left of politics to the Right. As such, I feel afforded a viewpoint whereby the machinations of organised politics have never really fitted in anywhere along the linear spectrum at any given time. Now, in my mid-fifties, I find myself scratching my head over the notion of just how and … Continue reading Conservatives Must Reclaim Green
BY JAMES ROBINSON These are the reasons I am a proud, small c conservative: I respect and admire the great Western traditions that have shielded humanity’s freedoms and liberties from the agents and forces of tyranny and anarchy. I freely recognise that our natural, divine, and inalienable rights and freedoms spring not from government but from the Divine. I understand that no country can long … Continue reading I, Conservative
Once upon a time there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her neighbours and said ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’ “Not I, ” said the cow. “Not I,” said the duck. “Not I,” said the pig. “Not I,” said the … Continue reading The Little Red Hen
BY SAM HOOPER After Brexit, attracting more exceptional citizen politicians and fewer mediocre career politicians is the next crucial step towards democratic renewal in Britain. A worthwhile article by new Labour MP Laura Smith for LabourList underlines the urgent need for more politicians who look and sound like contemporary human beings rather than cautious clones who have been training to become MPs their whole life. Laura Smith writes: … Continue reading Resurrecting The Citizen Politician
BY ALEXIA JAMES To the sensible and sound, the General Election last week was a simple question of mathematics and a totting up of negative facts around the judgment of Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour leadership. The IFS statement about Labour’s manifesto not adding up and documentation showing Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell supporting the IRA in the past would have been enough to secure a … Continue reading Tories Must Outcool Labour Celebs
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I attended a dinner in London last week dominated in numbers by socialists, who dismissed my (small c) conservatism as evil. Whilst switching between Brexit, Trump, the Income Divide, Bankers and Eton as their arsenals of ire, they explained that they were unquestionably the genuine do-gooders in British politics and that the world was in such an awful mess right now because of conservatives like me. These … Continue reading The Dinner Party
